Healthy Life – Suburban Tool Boxhttp://suburbantoolbox.com
Frugal tools for cost conscious intentional livingWed, 16 Aug 2017 02:39:01 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.1http://suburbantoolbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/cropped-MG_3451-1-1-32x32.jpgHealthy Life – Suburban Tool Boxhttp://suburbantoolbox.com
3232Here are my eighteen best days in 2016. What are some of yours?http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/04/here-are-my-five-eighteen-best-days-in-2016-what-are-some-of-yours/
http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/04/here-are-my-five-eighteen-best-days-in-2016-what-are-some-of-yours/#respondMon, 24 Apr 2017 15:23:46 +0000http://suburbantoolbox.com/?p=1394Here are my eighteen best days in 2016. What are some of yours?

This isn’t meant or brag or sound like my life is more glamorous than it truly is, from what I understand that’s what facebook and instagram are for. These highs are meant purely as some ammunition to fuel your creative juices and maybe one or two ideas to piggyback off of as you look for new ways to grow into the best version of yourself on a budget this coming year. But also, I think this can be a valuable exercise to acknowledge, and in doing so, better understand the type of things? Experiences? People? That make you happy when you look at a large amount of time and filter out the white noise.

I found that buying things didn’t seem to even make the top 20, although I’d acknowledge that things like the yard sale bike I bought for $30 or the $20 I spent on a kayak rental or airfare did play a part in SOME experiences, they are the exception to what brought happiness.

If you have something, an activity, hobby, or passion that you feel others could use for their own enjoyment, please feel free to post it in the comments below.

11) Driving with my niece for the first time after she got her learners permit.

12) Waking up at 4 am to take pictures of a lake bed as the fog rolled in at the first purple light of sunrise.

13) Exploring my childhood house in the fall and see how much both I and it have changed.

14) Seeing my dad take on a new love and skill in woodworking as a 73 year old.

15) Structuring my living area in ways that gave me both more space and creature comforts (Basically I decorated and moved some furniture but it eliminate daily eye sores, inconveniences, and added the visual and structural precision, and flow that I see every day.

16) Breaking my personal land speed record.

17) Almost every conversation I got to explore with my siblings and friends.

18) Rafting down a river.

]]>http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/04/here-are-my-five-eighteen-best-days-in-2016-what-are-some-of-yours/feed/0How to get more time out of your day: 6 tips to maximize your time savings.http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/04/how-to-get-more-time-out-of-your-day-5-tips-to-maximize-your-time-savings-squeeze-30-min-of-activities-before-or-after-work/
http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/04/how-to-get-more-time-out-of-your-day-5-tips-to-maximize-your-time-savings-squeeze-30-min-of-activities-before-or-after-work/#commentsMon, 03 Apr 2017 02:47:32 +0000http://suburbantoolbox.com/?p=1379 How to get more time out of your day: 6 tips to maximize your time savings.

I hate that I even have to do this but sometimes it seems like there just isn’t enough time in the day to get the things done that need getting done. Because of this I’ve had to find some creative strategies for squeezing in more activities into the time that I have. Here are 5 tips I’ve found to help be through the busiest days.

1) Put a time budget and associate it with each task. This concept really is meant to speak to the idea of being intentional or “on purpose” about the tasks we choose to do. Just doing the dishes can take 20-30 minutes if you saunter through it, but since we’re talking about making better use of our time, let’s try to beat the standard time. There’s a fine line between rushing so much that you’re in a frantic frenzy and simple not allowing yourself to be distracted. Almost without fail, when I set a realistic time budget, I find that I can do better than I had mentally been telling myself, and b) I enjoy the stimulus and engagement of having a time challenge within reason. I use to tell myself that oil changes take “forever” but found it was more like 20 minutes once I started measuring it.

2) Run 1 errand every day on your lunch break. The deceptive and also awesome thing about making very small, incremental, and continuous improvements is that you can accomplish very large goals simply by breaking them down into bite sized pieces. It makes daunting, unmanageable, or overwhelming tasks seem completely doable. All you need to do it chip away at it one little piece at a time. Look back after a day, week, a month, a year and the incredible things you will accomplish will surprise even the most ardent skeptics. One down side to a strategy of continuous improvement such as this is, if you’re like me, it can rob you of that feeling of having everything completed as you look back at your day. This can feel like you’re not making a dent. For this reason, I like to write it down so I can see visually how much I’m accomplished at a glance. Progress not perfection is what you’re going for.

3) Set a timer for 20 min in the morning or evening when you get home and blast through some chores. I call it my 20 minute blitz. You’ll find that when you’re singularly focused and on task you can really blast through much more than you could otherwise.

4) Make a list using a list app on your phone. The quote “We need reminding, as much as learning” really hits home for me about the need to organize and store your thoughts, tasks, and priorities. Remembering all those items that slip your mind, that need to get done is sometimes more challenging than actually doing them. Not being able to connect to the important activities that matter because you can’t remember them has the effect of wasting the time where they could actually be completed. The list app is a great equalizer but if you need even more of an edge try…..

5) Google now reminders. These can be set based on time or location. Say you need to remember to get the trash bin out for pickup when you get home from work. Just tell google to remind you and your smart phone will use it’s GPS to pop up a reminder when you arrive at your destination. This task works great for other addresses as well. I set reminders for my friends’ addresses who have borrowed tools and not returned them. This way, the next time I’m there I’ll remember to pick it up.

6) Put your phone and TV away from your bed. Across the room is a good place. This will help you stop wasting 10-30 minutes before bed on Facebook watching cat videos, and possibly another 10-20 minutes in the morning doing the same thing. Bam! Just like that you got nearly another 6 hours back in your week for doing tasks that actually have importance to your life’s outcome.

Do you have a life hack of your own? Post it in the comments below.

]]>http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/04/how-to-get-more-time-out-of-your-day-5-tips-to-maximize-your-time-savings-squeeze-30-min-of-activities-before-or-after-work/feed/1The outrageous benefits of learning the skill of practicing contentment.http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/03/the-outrageous-benefits-of-learning-the-skill-of-practicing-contentment/
http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/03/the-outrageous-benefits-of-learning-the-skill-of-practicing-contentment/#commentsMon, 06 Mar 2017 15:43:53 +0000http://suburbantoolbox.com/?p=1338It seems that there is sometimes a paradox in life that people build their own prisons and then spend the rest of their life trying break out, only to get back to exactly the place they started from, not realizing the contentment they had until they were able to compare it to their future state. This can be seen in so many areas of life.

In relationships for example, take the person who always wants to be in a relationship, but when they are, want nothing more than to be single and free.

Take the person who has a carefree lifestyle but trades it for a debt so that they may have a glamorous lifestyle because they believe it will bring them a greater happiness, later realizing that they wish it was carefree again but now need to work constantly to pay off their new debts. All of this while telling themselves that the items of convenience they bought are the same thing as being content, or better you happy.

Think one more time of the craftsman, or hobbyist, that truly loves his hobby only to find that when forced to do it every single day no longer enjoys it.

A great demonstration of this concept is the following fictional short story. It’s more than just an anecdotal tale though. The people of Okinawa seem to bear out the validity of this lesson in statistical truth. They are not wealthy but embrace a way of life, activity, and diet that gives them a figurative fountain of youth. This is why they have more people over 100 years old than any other people in the world. They are no doubt super-agers and it’s not simply genetic. Citizens who move off the Island and adopt a Western diet also contract “western diseases”. I couldn’t help but think of them the first time I heard the following story.

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “only a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.” The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”

“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”

“Millions – then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

It was a sunny Wednesday morning as I scanned the sea of cubicles at my office. Lumpy coworkers shuffled to vending machines to retrieve nutritionally barron snacks like floundering seals catching fish…only fish are super healthy and bullshit cardboard vending machine snacks are not. Someone brought in glycemic sugar grenades disguised as donuts. How they got past security I’ll never know. People scurried to get the good ones first in a possible attempt to raise their hypertension and BMI even further, as if to taunt the limits of health and sanity in one blow. Barbara from accounts receivable, pulled a hamstring and later complained of being out of breath after tying to beat Bob from accounting to the bear claw table. I tried to make myself small in my generically corporate patterned cubicle, knowing that an impending sugar crash was about to envelope most of the office in a predictable mood swing, leaving scattered adults in it’s wake whining like toddlers in need of a nap. This is the unfortunate premature death sentence that is life working as a cubicle jockey in corporate america.

Ok, I may be over dramatizing (ever so slightly) to prove a point, and that point is that sitting on your ass while your brain may or may not be working is not how human beings were designed to live. It’s not healthy, it’s not right, and dam it I’m not going to take it anymore! What’s that? Keep my voice down? People are trying to work? Sorry about that. I tend to get a little carried away sometimes.

I guess that the truth is that at some point we’ve all gotta do what we’ve gotta to do to get to the next phase of our financial lives. That doesn’t mean your body has to age like a K9 (7 years for every 1. See what I did there? It’s got layers.) though. So with that in mind here is your survival kit until you get paroled from the corporate prison that is working in a 6×6 joyless cubicle of sedentary capitalism. Personally I’ve been planning a prison escape for some time now. Don’t tell anybody though. I’ve paid off the right guards, the tunnels have been dug; I even have a deal with an inmate in the workshop to get me a life raft for the big day. I just have to preserve my mortal coil until then, and you do too. I’ll be honest, you’re not going to like some of these options but here they are just the same.

1) Can you volunteer for job roles that require/allow you to walk more? Does you’re department have a rover or someone who delivers things, talks to people in person, or otherwise just walks occasionally? Could that person be you with a little positioning.

2) Can you order a walking/stand up desk? You know all those muscles that aren’t engaged when you’re sitting on your butt? They’re the ones that engage when you’re standing to keep you standing. A stand up desk can help to make them feel less neglected.

3) Can you get off your ass and stretch during the day(I just do the runners stretch at my cube. Most people can’t even tell I’m doing it which cuts down on answering questions)? Your muscles shorten and tighten from sitting. Specifically, you’re hip flexors and your lower back muscles, which is likely why you have low back pain; the short muscles work together to tilt your pelvis until it put pressure on your lower spinal vertebrae.

4) Can you exercise before, after, or during work? Can that exercise be one, both, or a combination of 6&7 below? Yes I’m talking about at lunch. Yes I said at lunch! Why must I repeat myself.

5) Can you stop eating Halloween candy and liquefied birthday cakes from starbucks, like it’s a meal just because someone brought it into the office?

6) Exercise (cardio).

7) Strengthen your muscles (Weights and such)

8) Diet and Nutrition (Vegetables and protein). Now that you’ve taken out the bad elements with step 5, can you add in nutrients, minerals, vitamines, and stuff that your body can actually use to support your health?

9) Straighten your spine (Lordosis and Kyphosis are the official terms for a bent desk spine). Number 3 will help with this but for bad cases you may want to find a good chiropractor to test out.

What’s the point?

Once you’ve got a little financial breathing room, you can start to ask questions and make decisions that improve your quality of life-You don’t have to cringe with hesitation when deciding if you’re going to address that weird sound coming from your car because you just can’t afford one more expense right not. You don’t have to fall into a fundraising panic when you learn that your hot water heater is leaking. You don’t have to work Saturday to make extra money to cover an unexpected birthday (These shouldn’t be unexpected to begin with since they come every year).

Now you’ve got some momentum

Now the next phase starts to kick in-You start to invest the excess cash you have and before you know it you’re feeling like you’ve actually got some options in life instead of being controlled by money and having it dictate your every waking decision: When you get up, what you wear, how you speak, what you literally use your mind to focus on throughout the day.

You can start directing your life in increasingly more meaningful ways,ways that are meaningful to you, and while you’re at it you’ll be available to be a better friend, spouse, and support system for the people you love. Let’s face it, it’s hard to help people when you’re just treading water yourself either by your limited time or money.

The point isn’t to glorify money, it’s to get to a place where money doesn’t dictate your decisions any more. A place where you can operate not out of financial fear but instead by asking questions like “What is the highest version of me that I can be?” “What does that look like?” “What does this person do every week, day, month?”

Side Notes:

Spending money doesn’t equal happiness

Health and fitness- healthy mind = healthy body..or more likely, it’s the other way around.

Job close to home/find ways to buy back more time into my life

Use your time well. Run errands at lunch-don’t break up your day driving everywhere on the weekends

Health and people are the value in your life, without quality of both your life quality isn’t as complete.

]]>http://suburbantoolbox.com/2017/02/heres-master-formula-one-article/feed/44 things I learned when I cut out alcohol for 30 days.http://suburbantoolbox.com/2016/12/4-things-learned-cut-alcohol-30-days/
http://suburbantoolbox.com/2016/12/4-things-learned-cut-alcohol-30-days/#respondFri, 30 Dec 2016 03:08:23 +0000http://live-suburbantoolboxcom.pantheonsite.io/?p=3594 things I learned when I cut out alcohol for 30 days.

Who doesn’t like alcohol? Ok a few of you maybe, but for the great majority of people it’s how we celebrate, relax, unwind, and get our social juices flowing at parties, get togethers, and weddings. Habitual drinking has a few downsides though aside from just the health repercussions. I know, I know, I was as bummed as you to hear this. I wondered how my life would change as a casual but habitual drinker (a few beers a few nights a week). It was with this in mind that I gave up alcohol for 30 days on 3 separate occasions to see what, if anything, would change for me. Here’s what I found.

1) I had more energy (No naps, not drained when I’d get home from work, I found myself acting differently-I was doing activities in places where I previously would have been “chilling”. Sure once or twice you can just write this off as anecdotal change in activity, but after 4 weeks of seeing a change like this, it’s likely not just placebo or coincidence). When a person hears ‘I have more energy’ usually the first things that comes to mind is a vision of a person under the effects of caffeine. This is not the type of “energy” to which I’m referring. The type of energy I’m referring to is more like the absence of fatigue that it is a caffeinated jolt. So adjust your expectations and look for things like, lowered “lunch lag” and “food Coma” periods, more activity when you get home from work, less sitting in front of the TV paralyzed with drowsiness, fewer poor eating decisions caused by fatigue. It will NOT be as though you never experience drowsiness again. You definitely will but the sharp edges of experiencing a drained mental state will definitely get rounded off.

2)I slept better.Actually significantly better. I didn’t wake up and find myself unable to go back to sleep around 3 am because my liver was processing toxins. I also didn’t wake up to pee as often which made my sleep cycles deeper and more restful. The importance of this on health cannot be overstated. Sleep is where your body creates many of the chemicals that have the largest effect on your physical and mental state. It’s also where your body gets a chance to repair and rejuvenate itself.

3) Because of this new absence of cyclical fatigue, I began to notice that over the course of a few weeks, I was developing a kind of momentum in my life. I was getting things done that pushed my life forward instead of just maintaining my existence. I was beginning to think about ways to grow forward instead of just getting through the week. Again, it was nothing dramatic just little things like running an extra errand at lunch or after work that added up to a larger effect after a few weeks.

4) Another insidious side effect of alcohol is that is ever so subtly taints you mood, which affects your perspective, which can create a negative and unhealthy internal dialogue. Specifically, when you’re irritable everything has greater potential to annoy you but more importantly, it stops you from approaching things from a place of empowerment instead lashing out, if only mentally, where you otherwise wouldn’t have. I know some of you are saying ‘bullshit, I don’t get drunk when I drink’. I’m not talking about drinking to excess, just getting a happy buzz a couple of times a week that engages the muscle relaxing effects of alcohol. Once you remove alcohol completely for 30 days, if you’re being honest, you’ll notice a greater levelness to your attitude. Little things will just roll by like a bump in the road. Alcohol is after all a poison.

If any of this sounds like you, go ahead be brave, and see if your life is any different when you change some of your habits around drinking. If it’s not, you won’t have any trouble finding a drinking support group out there.

]]>http://suburbantoolbox.com/2016/12/4-things-learned-cut-alcohol-30-days/feed/0Optimism is not the same as naivety: 3 practical differences between optimism and naivety.http://suburbantoolbox.com/2016/12/optimism-not-naivety-3-practical-differences-optimism-naivety/
http://suburbantoolbox.com/2016/12/optimism-not-naivety-3-practical-differences-optimism-naivety/#respondWed, 14 Dec 2016 08:01:46 +0000http://live-suburbantoolboxcom.pantheonsite.io/?p=354Optimism is not the same as naivety. 3 practical differences between optimism and naivety.

Do you know that person, who runs around with an attitude about the how the world is a just place and everybody gets what the deserve in life? That there is some cosmic force making sure bad things don’t happen to good people, while also making sure that bad people get what they deserve? Well that person is not paying attention to reality, or simply hasn’t been alive long enough to realize that this isn’t true. Exceptionally terrible things happen to people who don’t deserve them, all the time. Acknowledging this doesn’t need to be negative but ignoring it will make you vulnerably naive on some level. True optimism is understanding the harsh realities of life, looking at them pragmatically, but also having a plan and an expectation to still thrive when they inevitably occur. Often times this seems to get tangled and twisted into a concept that you always need to look at the positive side of things, people, circumstances, or whatever life throws your way. The truth is, a more beneficial outlook would be to attach no meaning to some events at all, instead letting time decide what their true meaning might be. With that in mind, here are 3 differences between optimism and naivety and a pretty picture of some blue water, because why not.

1) Optimism comes from a place of observation, experience, and empowerment; naivety comes from inexperience.

2) Optimism comes from undramatic maturity; naivety comes from immaturity and immaturity is usually drowning in drama.

3) Optimism is long sighted where naivety focuses disproportionately on the short term. (Optimism is not the same as never seeing anything negative. It just keeps it in perspective)

Below, I have added a story titled “The Farmer’s Son”. I didn’t write it but I love this story because it shows the flaws that come with rushing to judgment and short sightedness, and contrasts them against the steady and calm approach of the farmer in the story. It’s a great lesson to revisit frequently for a reminder about how dramatic events, as well as the meaning of events, can change form when more time or information is added. Strangely, negatives can turn to positives, and sometimes back into negatives. Time changes perspectives and reveals truth that wasn’t visible before. It’s an invaluable lesson when navigating the uncertainties of life.

The farmer’s son

One day in late summer, an old farmer was working in his field with his old sick horse. The farmer felt compassion for the horse and desired to lift its burden. So he left his horse loose to go the mountains and live out the rest of its life.

Soon after, neighbors from the nearby village visited, offering their condolences and said, “What a shame. Now your only horse is gone. How unfortunate you are!. You must be very sad. How will you live, work the land, and prosper?” The farmer replied: “Who knows? We shall see”.

Two days later the old horse came back now rejuvenated after meandering in the mountainsides while eating the wild grasses. He came back with twelve new younger and healthy horses which followed the old horse into the corral.

Word got out in the village of the old farmer’s good fortune and it wasn’t long before people stopped by to congratulate the farmer on his good luck. “How fortunate you are!” they exclaimed. You must be very happy!” Again, the farmer softly said, “Who knows? We shall see.”

At daybreak on the next morning, the farmer’s only son set off to attempt to train the new wild horses, but the farmer’s son was thrown to the ground and broke his leg. One by one villagers arrived during the day to bemoan the farmer’s latest misfortune. “Oh, what a tragedy! Your son won’t be able to help you farm with a broken leg. You’ll have to do all the work yourself, How will you survive? You must be very sad”. they said. Calmly going about his usual business the farmer answered, “Who knows? We shall see”

Several days later a war broke out. The Emperor’s men arrived in the village demanding that young men come with them to be conscripted into the Emperor’s army. As it happened the farmer’s son was deemed unfit because of his broken leg. “What very good fortune you have!!” the villagers exclaimed as their own young sons were marched away. “You must be very happy.” “Who knows? We shall see!”, replied the old farmer as he headed off to work his field alone.

As time went on the broken leg healed but the son was left with a slight limp. Again the neighbors came to pay their condolences. “Oh what bad luck. Too bad for you”! But the old farmer simply replied; “Who knows? We shall see.”

As it turned out the other young village boys had died in the war and the old farmer and his son were the only able bodied men capable of working the village lands. The old farmer became wealthy and was very generous to the villagers. They said: “Oh how fortunate we are, you must be very happy”, to which the old farmer replied, “Who knows? We shall see!”

]]>http://suburbantoolbox.com/2016/12/optimism-not-naivety-3-practical-differences-optimism-naivety/feed/0The 11 times in life I am the happiest-11 things you can do that’ll make you happier this weekend.http://suburbantoolbox.com/2016/09/the-11-times-in-life-i-am-the-happiest-11-things-you-can-do-thatll-make-you-happier-this-weekend/
http://suburbantoolbox.com/2016/09/the-11-times-in-life-i-am-the-happiest-11-things-you-can-do-thatll-make-you-happier-this-weekend/#commentsSat, 17 Sep 2016 16:43:03 +0000http://www.suburbantoolbox.com/?p=711 things you can do that’ll make you happier this weekend.

With the ongoing science experiment that is my life, I’ve occasionally stopped after having an exceptional day to reflect on what it was that brought me happiness This particular day I was sitting back during that dusky hour at the end of a long day of working and organizing the house, closet, and work shop when I had an epiphany. I was experiencing a feeling of contentment that seemed odd and out of place because, as I thought more about it, I realized, I hadn’t gone anywhere that day, I hadn’t bought anything, and I hadn’t even spent any money, I’d only exerted my will onto my environment, yet I felt great about what I had done that day. Better than a lot of other days where I had tried to buy the same feeling through movies, fairs, and amusement parks.

I was experiencing a feeling of hard earned accomplishment and it was giving me a high that was better than many things money can buy. It made me think “If I can be this happy, having not even left the house or buying anything, how can I duplicate this experience?”

Does happiness really come from within as I’ve so often heard philosophers and uninformed hipsters alike say? If so, how could I get more specific about this concept and really identify some things along these lines that make a person happy? Over the next few years I came up with a list of other times that I get this same high with the hopes that I could more consciously be the author of my own happiness.

What was it specifically about the experience that I could learn from and make a formula for future days when I also might want to have a smile on my face? Below are a few common themes that seem to show up over and over, across a broad spectrum of activities.

1 Being in Nature.

2 Organizing clutter/making good use of my space.

3 Completing my to-do list/Setting goals and accomplishing them.

4 Helping someone I care about.

5 Connecting with other people/comradery/bonding.

6 Getting better at something.

7 Feeling valued for my input.

8 Getting completely lost in the moment/an activity/ being fully engaged in an activity and loosing track of time.

9 Sharing knowledge with other people and seeing them grow.

10 Focusing on the positive even when I may not feel like it.

11 Listing the things I am grateful for.

12 Having a clean car.

13 Having a clean kitchen-These things act like visual reassurances for my sub conscious, letting me know that I’ve got a clean and managed platform to address the surprises and uncertainties that are inevitable in daily life.

14 Seeing someone make a mistake and not making them feel stupid about it (Road ragers this may apply to you).

15. Restoring or repairing something old or worn out to be new(ish) again.

Do you notice the common theme with these? They don’t require a lot of money to attain, yet when people think about ways to be happy, the first instinct is often to buy something as if to unintentionally reveal that our inner belief system equates happiness with money. Well I propose that we rewrite our internal monologue to at least consider that this doesn’t need to be true the great majority of the time.

How about you? When are you the happiest? Can you repeat these feelings? Can you apply it to some other activity? What healthy activities do find give you a conscious or unconscious boost to your happiness that don’t cost money? Please feel free to post in the comments below.

Having a bad day? Check out these ideas for how to troubleshoot you way right out of it.